This invention pertains to an apparatus and process for the economical issuance of secure personalized plastic cards. More particularly, this invention pertains to the immediate issuance of personalized wallet-size plastic cards printed at remote sites in conjunction with a large central computer record keeping system.
In today""s high tech society, it has become commonplace and necessary for organizations to issue individual identification cards to participants or members. These cards, usually made of plastic, are widely issued by financial institutions, government organizations, and organizations having membership requirements. A typical person in the United States has approximately 6-12 plastic cards in his possession at any given time. Many government organizations with tight budgets are investing millions of dollars to issue personalized cards to their constituents.
The cards themselves are usually made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) but are sometimes made from polyester. Many of the cards are fancifully designed and colored with pictures and logos. Most of these cards are personalized for the customer in some manner at great cost.
Any method for personalizing cards is generally more expensive than methods providing less personal information on the card. Methods for personalizing cards at a central location incur the additional cost of delivering the card to the client or customer. Many times this delivery to each individual client or customer is by first class mail. However, known methods for personalizing cards locally are generally the most expensive methods for personalizing.
For example, government organizations involved in welfare distribution to welfare recipients usually personalize cards at a high cost. The government organizations first issue temporary cards to welfare recipients during the first office visit. Later the recipients receive permanent personal cards by First Class mail. These cards are printed at a central location.
A system which personalizes cards at an organization""s central location in high volume is available from either the Datacard or Oakwood company. These systems require a significant capital investmentxe2x80x94exceeding $100,000. Central processing systems add cost to the issuing organization such as, labor costs, capital outlay for the high-end equipment, card costs of approximately 40¢ per card, postage, envelopes, and card carriers for envelopes. If an issuing authority centrally personalizing cards issues four to five thousand cards per day, the issuing authority""s costs, are approximately 75¢ per card. If the issuing authority is centrally personalizing cards and issuing only fifty to one hundred cards per day, the cost per card rises to approximately $1.00 per card or more. Perhaps more importantly, the added cost of issuing two cards for each client is enormous. The consumer is initially issued a temporary card and must wait for the arrival of the second card, the permanent personalized card.
There are essentially four levels of personal information placed on personalized cards available on the market. The four levels of personalization will be described from those providing the least personal information on the card to those providing the most personal information on the card. The first level of personalization is achieved through the use of the standard vault card or instant issue card. There is no personal information on level one cards. The only personalization achieved with level one is that the card number (or account number) is related in a computer program to a particular person and the person""s Personal Identification Number (PIN). Vault cards are industry standard cards that are kept locked by the issuing authority in a vault. The cards are generally pre-embossed either with raised lettering or flat graphics, and pre-encoded on a magnetic strip. The pre-embossing and pre-encoding is generally completed to the International Standards Organization (ISO) specifications. The vault cards or instant issue cards may be issued with or without magnetic strip coded with the card number.
The next level of personalization, second level, is achieved by issuing a vault card (or instant issue card) and personalizing the card with handwritten material. Level two personalized vault cards are generally not issued with magnetic strips. In fact, some of these cards are blank cards without any embossing. The cards are locally personalized by employees of the card issuing authority. The personalizing is done by handwriting on small areas of the card which have a paper or other writing surface. Level two provides low cost, low security cards.
The next level of personalization, or third level, is achieved by embossing personal information on the card either through raised lettering or flat lettering. This embossing may be done at a central location with a high volume embossing machine or at a local location with a smaller low volume embossing machine.
The first level of personalization, fourth level, provides the greatest amount of personal information on the card by combining the magnetic encoding of personal information on the card in addition to the embossing of personal information on the card.
The cost to personalize cards is high. For example, the cost of a manual embosser (or hand press) which provides raised lettering and no encoding is approximately $2,000. An automated embosser with keyboard entry performing only raised lettering costs approximately $5,000 to $7,000. An automated embosser and magnetic encoder combination costs approximately $10,000 to $12,000. An embosser and encoder combination that is fully integrated with a personal computer costs approximately $15,000 to $17,000 (excluding software development). The cost of a flat graphic embosser which includes the ability to digitize pictures is approximately $35,000 per unit. Once such embosser is manufactured by Datacard Corporation and is called the Ultragrafix(trademark) U-800. The other personalizing devices described are available from several vendors including Datacard, Magtek and Oakwood corporations.
Consumers prefer to have their names on all plastic cards that they hold. Having their name on the card avoids confusion within a household if members of the household accidently exchange cards. In addition, if a card with an owner""s name on it is lost, the owner can be more easily located and the card returned.
The magnetic strip on the back of most plastic cards can hold only a limited amount of information. The magnetic tracks meeting the ISO standard consist of three tracks that can hold approximately 40 characters per track. Most magnetic card readers available on the market read one or two tracks, generally the first and second track or the second and third track. This limited amount of character space on the magnetic strip restricts a card issuing authority""s ability to place individual client information on the plastic card.
Placing personal information on cards will help satisfy clients. Many cards on the market today have a small signature panel where the client may sign his name to help eliminate fraudulent use of his card. Since many issued cards lack identifying information that is personalized to the client, swapping of cards and security on cards is difficult. Fraudulent use of cards is a costly societal problem. The addition of personal information on cards will help reduce fraudulent use of cards.
What is needed is an economical system for personalizing cards.
What is needed is a system that produces cards while the client is being interviewed by the card issuing authority.
What is needed is a system that can personalize cards at local sites.
What is needed is a system that quickly personalizes cards while the consumer waits.
What is needed is a new method of placing information on cards.
What is needed is a system that can place a great deal of personal information on a card prior to issuance.
What is needed is a system that limits the fraudulent use of cards.
What is needed is a system that will place information on industry standard financial transaction cards (ISO standard PVC cards).
Only a limited amount of information can be embossed on cards using raised lettering. Raised letter embossing requires a great deal of space on a card. Further, raised lettering embossing weakens a plastic card. Therefore, only a limited amount of information can be embossed before the integrity of the card 108 becomes unacceptable.
This invention is an economical secure system for the personalizing of plastic cards. Specifically, the present invention is a system that allows for the personalizing of plastic cards at remote sites while maintaining a data base that corresponds client personal information with unique card numbers. This is a particularly useful invention for card issuing organizations which maintain a central data base of client information that corresponds each client with unique card number. More specifically, card issuing organizations which have multiple remote sites which interview clients will achieve the greatest economic benefit from this invention. The card personalizer eliminates the need for issuing two cards, a temporary card and a permanent card. With the card personalizer, a permanent card may be personalized and issued during a client interview. The immediate issuing of a permanent personalized card creates a large cost savings to issuing organizations.
The card personalizer system consists of three essential components: a computer for data entry and driving a printing system, a printing system, and a modified plastic card. The computer allows entry of unique card identification numbers and client personal information. This information is then correlated and stored. The second function performed by the computer is the driving of a printing system that is capable of printing on portions of plastic cards which have been specially prepared for printing. Industry standard plastic cards that have been modified by the addition of a prepared writing surface are used in the preferred embodiment.
In its simplest embodiment the invention requires a personal computer, a plotter and an industry standard card (ISO) with a unique card identification number. To use the invention an operator simply inputs a unique card identification number, several fields of client personal information and prompts the computer to print the client personal information a prepared writing surface on the plastic card.
The system is easy to use and is very economical. A simple personal computer and plotter are located at numerous remote sites and each is connected to a central data processor that stores client records.
A novel combination of computer, printing system and card provides economical permanent personalizing of cards. The printing system combines ink, ink delivery system and a prepared card writing surface to efficiently produce personalized cards.
The invention increases the security available to limit the fraudulent use of plastic cards. This is accomplished through greater use of client personal information, security text, and tamper proof text. The invention allows organizations to quickly and efficiently personalize cards at remote sites during a client interview. The invention allows the organization to maintain a central records while issuing cards from remote sites.
It is an object of this invention to provide an economical system for the personalizing of cards.
It is an object of this invention to provide an economical system where cards may be personalized at numerous local sites.
It is an object of this invention to issue personalized cards remotely while maintaining a central record system.
It is an object of this invention to have a simple system for personalizing cards.
It is an object of this invention to issue personalized cards to clients during an initial interview.
It is an object of this invention to personalize a client""s card while the client waits for the card.
It is an object of this invention to increase security measures available for cards.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become obvious to those skilled in the art upon review of the description of a preferred embodiment and the appended drawings and claims.
The present invention is designed to address these needs.